PC gamers fuel hardware sales in otherwise stagnant market

[ypsylon]

Information about 'Death of the PC' is as always greatly exaggerated, and totally untrue. Branded desktops are dying - fact. Enthusiast/DIY market growing each year at frantic pace.

Consoles and tablets will die quicker than enthusiast PC and that is a fact my Friends.

 

[DDG4005]

I am in the same boat. kids, house, wife, job, as much as I love gaming and have always been since the early 90's. I am getting less and less time now a days to game. I'd be lucky if I had time to sit down and game for 20 mins each week. hence I've been putting off upgrading the gaming rig for 5 years now. dropping $600 on a new CPU, mobo, and ram just doesn't make much sense now consider everything else that's going on. enjoy the times of being single and young kids. they don't last.

Very good point.

I've been prolonging this event lol

I have a house,job,girlfriend no kids early 30's

Current build is from oct 2009 and got upgrades as she aged.

i7 920 to i7 970 @ 4.2
6GB to 12GB
Hard drive to SSD now Raid 0 SSDs
6950 to 7970 Ghz

I won't look at any more major upgrades until Haswell E possibly.

the thing is you don't wanna wait too long if you ever want to have kids. I put it off for the longest time until I learned about all the disease your child can get if you have it too late. the longer you wait, the chance of genetic disease increases. I know growing up people always said gotta have kids when you're healthy and young, no one ever talk about why, or the science behind it. that and contemplating between dropping $800 on a new set of home theatre tower speakers, or trade in my car for a porsche cayman. $600 to play crysis 3 just doesn't sound that enticing anymore.

my current gaming rig is from mid 2008. Core2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz overclocked to 4ghz with my own customized water rig. needless to say that beast has held onto its last breath and took every game I threw at it. in the past year I've only had to upgrade the graphic card until Crysis 3 came out, which really brought the CPU down to its knees.

This why decided not to remarry after my divorce or have kids. I wanted to be able to upgrade my PCs whenever I wanted, money permitting. It may sound selfish but that's the choice I've made and it's worked out for me thus far.

 

[MonsterZero]

howzz1854 - Take your SSD off RAID 0 - there is little to no benefit from running SSD's in a raid, its been proven before.

 

[Lionvibez]

howzz1854 - Take your SSD off RAID 0 - there is little to no benefit from running SSD's in a raid, its been proven before.

I'm the one using SSD's in Raid 0 and how about you ask why instead of assuming there is no benefit for me.

I have SSD's in Raid 0 to increase my capacity not for speed that is just a added bonus.

I do backups to a ESATA hard drive and the system is on a UPS.

 

[sentrycube]

The satisfaction that a PC gives is un-matched.

Stepping back and appreciating the awesomeness that is the PC, after building it component by component.

 

[avoidz]

Yes, your powerful and versatile desktop PC with its big screen(s) and proven, accurate input devices are going to be replaced with a glossy Angry Birds tablet.

 

[DDG4005]

I'd like to see new additions to the Descent and Freespace franchises that really push PC hardware to its limits. I still play Descent and Descent 2 via the Rebirth project.

 

[Railman]

Decent was pretty cool in its day. I hope to build a mid range system as I cannot afford an I7 based system and I will be using it for multiple applications. I want a decent gaming experience but I don't need the fastest high definition output.

 

[DDG4005]

Decent was pretty cool in its day. I hope to build a mid range system as I cannot afford an I7 based system and I will be using it for multiple applications. I want a decent gaming experience but I don't need the fastest high definition output.

A Core i5 would serve your tech needs well. It's reasonable priced and offers performance that mostly on par with a Core i7.

 

[Guest]

Not as afordable anymore? How do you figure? PCs are cheaper, and technology is moving slower, which means less upgrades.
15(ish) years ago I paid more for my AMD Athlon 650mhz, than I did for my i7-2600k.
The difference is I've been running my 2600k for two years, and my PC is still cutting edge.
When I built my AMD 650, I found I had a bad motherboard. By the time I got the replacement motherboard through the return process, the AMD 950 was less than I paid for the 650.
PC building is becoming cheaper, and you have to upgrade far less often.

 

[Railman]

I agree that in real terms PC are much more affordable than 15 years ago. The problem now is that other costs have risen so much that for many disposal income is such a rarity.